I thought patchbays where simply ins and outs.....

  • Thread starter Thread starter LocusLarsen
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LocusLarsen

LocusLarsen

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I have been looking at getting a patch bay for my new rack that I am just starting to put together.

But, what is Normalled, half-normalled, and isolated configurations? I was looking at everything from choughNadycough to Furman to Ace and DBX, and I don't get it.
 
Patch bays come with two rows of jacks. Most often the top row will be outputs, and the bottom row is inputs. A normalled connection will send the signal from the top row to the bottom row without anything being plugged in. With a normalled connection, if you plug in a patch cable, the normalled connection is broken. With a half normalled patch bay, the connection is only broken when you plug in a connection to the bottom row (the input).

The idea is that you can have the units you use most connected without having to use any patch cables. For instance, you might keep the input to your reverb unit "normalled" to the first aux send on your console, and the output "normalled" to a pair of channels. This saves a lot of patch cables, which is very important because (1) patch cables are relatively expensive, and (2) it can be very difficult to figure out what is plugged in where, and where to plug it, when there are so many cables in the way.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Do a search here on the site for "normalling": there have been some very good discussions of patchbay setup over the years.
 
Thanks for the replies. I forgot that this might be something that has been disgussed already.
 
watch out that the behringers are unbalanced...word to the wise, but if thats all you need those are some hndy switches!
 
pipelineaudio said:
watch out that the behringers are unbalanced...word to the wise, but if thats all you need those are some hndy switches!
Click to expand...

True!
Got a free Beh patch-bay from Sammy's a coupla' years ago. (when you spend your mortgage money on gear, Sammy's will throw you a free piece of cheap gear)
Realized it was unbalanced yet came in handy when patching
up my ADAT's!
 
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